This invention relates to a trailer that attaches to the rear of a mobile crop baler for the purpose of grouping side-by-side several bales as they issue from the baler and of dumping accumulated bales as a unit on the ground in a suitable position for later to be picked up by a clamp apparatus and deposited as a unit on a vehicle for hauling to another location. The bale accumulator and discharger of the present invention is particularly well-suited for use in conjunction with so-called medium-size square balers capable of producing bales of hay in the order of 300 kg. This type of baler is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,991. The present invention is not limited to medium-size square balers of that type, but may, in fact, be utilized with great effectiveness in conjunction as well with so-called large square balers such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,543 producing hay bales of up to one ton each and with small, conventional square balers.
An agricultural baler is a widely used piece of equipment which collects and compresses crop material such as hay, straw etc., whereafter wire or twine is applied around the compressed material to hold a bale together. Formed bales are ejected periodically from a bale chamber of the baler as the latter travels over the ground, and each bale on being ejected normally then drops to the ground.
In order to make a farming operation more efficient, it has already been proposed to provide a machine for trailing attachment to a conventional agricultural baler to receive successive bales as they are discharged from the baler, to accumulate the bales in a group, and to discharge the grouped bales on the ground.
It is also known to provide such a machine with means for automatically accumulating the bales in a predetermined group and automatically discharging the bales when the predetermined group is formed. Such a machine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,352, wherein the bales are accumulated standing on their ends in a side-by-side relationship and automatically discharged when a predetermined group has accumulated by utilizing the weight of the bales to tilt the floor of the machine, so that the bales slide off in successive rows as the machine advances and are deposited, shingle fashion, on the ground. However, the manner in which the bales are deposited on the ground makes later collection of the grouped bales as a unit by mechanical means, such as a forklift, difficult, if not impossible.
The aforementioned accumulator is used in conjunction with a conventional baler producing small rectangular bales and having a bale chamber generally at one side of the machine. The loadbed upon which bales are accumulated, is disposed in offset relationship to one side of the bale chamber and yet this accumulator has a width extending beyond both opposite sides of the baler as seen in fore-and-aft direction.
A similar bale accumulator for use in conjunction with a conventional baler having a bale case generally at one side of the machine, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,275. In operation, bales are received in pairs on a bale receiving table which is generally aligned with the bale case and which is pivotally mounted on the frame for movement to a bale transfer position to place successive bales on a loadbed which again is disposed in generally offset relationship to one side of the bale case.
In the arrangements according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,352 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,275, the given width of the implement is not efficiently used for accumulating the maximum number of bales. Indeed, a substantial section of the transverse width of the accumulator is taken by the bale receiving and transfer means and which consequently cannot be used for holding accumulated bales.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,964 shows a bale accumulator for use in conjunction with a so-called large rectangular baler having a generally centrally disposed bale case as seen in transverse direction of the machine. The bale accumulator, in operation, is coupled to the rear of the baler with a central bale receiving table generally aligned with the bale case and with bale holding platforms at both sides of the bale receiving table. Bale transfer means are associated with the receiving table and are operable successively to transfer one bale from the receiving table to one side platform and a next bale from said receiving table to the opposite side platform. These side platforms are pivotable to dump the pair of bales collected thereon onto the ground while that a third bale inches its way onto the centrally disposed bale receiving table. It thus will be understood from what precedes that the arrangement according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,964 cannot group several bales side-by-side and dump such bales as an accumulated unit on the ground in a suitable position for later to be picked up as such by a clamp apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a bale accumulator and discharger of a width not exceeding the 3.0 meter limit, that attaches to the rear of a mobile baler in general alignment therewith and that accumulates a maximum number of bales in side-by-side relation transversely of the implement for subsequent dumping as a unit onto the ground.